?0,000 Jews in Egypt Face Loss of Jobs As “foreigners”; 40,000 Are Native Born

November 14, 1947

Cairo (Nov. 13)

The Egyptian Government has refused to exempt some ?0,000 Jewish residents, from compliance with an alien registration law on the technicality that they are legally stateless persons.

In effect, the refusal to grant citizenship to these Jews, all long-time or native born, will bar many of them from employment because another feature of the law, which went into effect two days ago, limits the number of “foreigners” who may be employed in Egyptian business enterprises.

The families of the native born Jews have resided in the country since before the first World War when it was part of the Ottoman Empire and at which time they enjoyed extra-territorial citizenship rights. However, later international agreements wiped out the privileged categories and the Jews as well as other minorities have been living in the country on the assumption that they were citizens of Egypt. Recently when the government first ruled them stateless people, thousands of Jews applied for citizenship applications, but their applications are still tied up in official red tape.

In addition, there are some 10,000 Jews now resident in the country who will be affected by the law but who do not claim Egyptian citizenship.